Illegal scam call centers operating in India cost global victims billions of dollars annually by using sophisticated impersonation and tech-support ruses.
Callers, if spite of the fact that they have glaringly bad Indian accents, pose as agents from the IRS, Social Security Administration, or any number of other scams threatening victims with immediate arrest, legal action, or deportation unless they pay a fine via wire transfer or gift cards.
Callers also claim unauthorized transactions occurred on a victim's bank or credit account, tricking them into giving remote access or moving funds. Many illegal hubs evolved out of India's legitimate IT and outsourcing boom, heavily clustering in urban and tech-forward areas like Gurugram and Ahmedabad.
Scammers use Voice over IP (VoIP) to spoof legitamte phone numbers (usually in the area code your phone number is registered to) and employ psychological manipulation, sometimes utilizing co-conspirators or AI voice tools in Western countries to try to rip you off.
The easy answer? Don't accept any call from a number you don't recognize -
if it's a legit call, it'll go to voice mail.
My way of handling it? Once in a while I'll engage with them for as long as I possibly can, until such point that they start to get hip to my keeping them busy.
At that point, I say something to effect of "I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding you. You Indian guys all talk like somebody's got a cock balls deep in your mouth." That usually initiates an onslaught of incomprehensible english curse gibberish. I love that. Juss' sayin'...
had one that said they were from the irs. i told him your in luck, i work for the irs whats the issue, click
ReplyDeleteI do some thing similar, I have a list of names ( Monte Zuma, Mike Stand, Noah Pinion, Pete Moss, ) among others that I use, I have a fake address ( middle of nowhere in Texas) , fake sSN, bank account and Medicare number, Visa card number, the whole thing. I have also been cursed at, they have said they were going to my house and “f” my wife in my bed, I always call them losers and she wouldn’t have anything to do with him. They get mad and Hang up on me.
DeleteMy favorite tactic is to hold the phone in the nearly empty 30 gallon scrap steel barrel and hammer on the side with my pliers. Then stop and ask "what the hell was that noise?" So I'm easily entertained.
ReplyDeleteI would always get calls for web page design, I would say "I was just looking into that, what services do you provide?". Then just lay the phone down until they hang up.
ReplyDeleteMy country has just entered into a free trade agreement with India - it includes access for Indians. Yikes, I'm already travelling some distance to but booze from a white owned store where they drink. That said my Indian friends are Christian and good people - I think religion makes a difference as they can transition to a high trust culture when they really embrace western ideals.
ReplyDeleteI saw a meme one time with Bruce Campbell saying "I'll talk to you but I'm going to be masturbating the whole time". Oddly, that didn't turn off one guy. Saying they have intimate relations with a family member really gets them going.
ReplyDeleteI always say, "you sound like someone that eats pork". Boy do they flip out on that one!
ReplyDeletePhone scammers should get the public execution treatment.
ReplyDeleteI've been getting them from an outfit that wants to install solar, insulate my house, landscape and so on. I've told them to F.O too many times. Now I just set up an appointment with them using an address of an empty house down the road.
ReplyDeleteI always appreciated this one
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